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The Portuguese city of Albufeira boasts a coastal location that’s naturally teeming with stunning beaches and panoramic views. Unsurprisingly, thousands of beach lovers from all over the world travel to Albufeira to experience the city’s unique wonders. The vast majority of tourists arrive to Albufeira from Faro Airport, which originally opened in 1966. Faro Airport can currently handle up to six million passengers a year, and has taken steps ... read more

Okay, this post is more about rambling than about anything else. I just don't get it! All (well, most) the cheap self catering hotel rooms I lived in had a daily maid service. They cleaned the room, made your bed. Right. You would assume that in case of a room with a kitchen, the service would also include cleaning the kitchen and washing the dishes, right? Or am I the only one who expects that? But for some reason, that's the only thing they don't do. I don't care about someone making my bed, I... read more

My flight didn't land in Faro, but I found a flight from Brussels to Malaga instead. And I had to spend the night there and...well, the night at the airport was full of surprises. It was about 1am when I was just looking for a nice seat to lay down for a bit when someone from the other side of the airport shouted and invited me there. There were three guys - one from England, one from Netherlands, one from Finland. They offered me free beer, free wine and some sandwiches as well. All the shops i... read more

If you've ever been to Morocco, you're probably used to all the street sales people. Well, I was. But I wasn't really expecting it from Albufeira. At least on the main strip and in the main square in old town there's a number of guys selling sunglasses. Well, the pitch often goes like that "do you want to buy sunglasses? No? What about some hash? No? Cocain? ". And the streets were crowded with them, kinda. But at least they were polite.
Why doesn't the police do anything about? As much as I... read more

Firstly, there's no airport in Albufeira, so in order to get to Albufeira, you should get to Lisbon or Faro Airport and from there take a bus or train to Albufeira. Obviously, as Faro is 5x closer, then if possible, fly to Faro airport. I don't know about long haul flights, meaning from Australaisia or Americas, but within Europe the cheapest way to get there is using Ryanair. You could also try Easyjet (to Lisbon). I won't have to tell you about possible flight prices. If you've ever flown with... read more

I stayed in five different hotels. For a moment I thought I was in 6 different hotels, but...no, I shouldn't drink that much. Well, anyhow.
Hotel Jardim
It's located in old town on top of a hill, about 15 minute walk from the beach. Most rooms have beach view. The buildings could use some repairs, but I guess for the money I paid there, it was good enough. Hotel includes a bar, the bartenders were great. Price was usually under EUR10/night. If you want a tv remote, pay EUR 1/night more. If ... read more

I decided not to use google map or anyhing else similar. I decided even not to check the actual map to make sure I got it all right. Instead, I decided to draw a reaaaaaaaly ugly map for you based on how the map "felt" like to me. Sounds like a great plan, always, right? Well, bare with me, you can't always have everything pretty and concrete. Sometimes you just have to go with the crap people offer you.
... read more

I'm not much of a club person myself. No, I think that was exaggeration now, the "much of a" should be removed from that sentence. But I do love beer and I do love bars and I do love the nightlife there. And considering there was enough nightlife in Albufeira during weekends during off season, you can expect the town to be full of parties and anything related during high season.
The best club, in which even I've been to, once, getting bloody (but that's already another story), in Albufeira is... read more

If you want to get to know Albufeira a little better, don't take some expensive tour bus or anything else. Just hop on any bus in Albufeira (there are red lines, green lines, blue lines, orange lines) and just sit in it, watch out the window, as long as you get back to the bus station. All the bus tickets there work for one hour and can be used on any line within that time. Tickets can be bought from the bus driver.
I personally took couple of red line tours by accident...as I didn't know wh... read more

There's no airport in Albufeira, so the easiest way to get there is through Faro Airport. There are couple of different ways for transportation between Faro Airport and Albufeira. One of course is regular buses. The cost is something like eur 1.60 (I might be just a bit wrong) for a bus from Faro Airport to Faro and EUR 4.50 from Faro to Albufeira. You could take a train from Faro to Albufeira as well, that's EUR 2.50, but it doesn't make much sense as you'd still have to take a bus from Albufei... read more

Why did I decide to go to Albufeira? Well, I arrived in Faro where I had met an English guy 8 months before when I visited Faro. He asked if I had any plans, I said no. So he offered we could go to Albufeira for a week. The distance between Albufeira and Faro is about 50km and takes around an hour on the bus. Once I had been there for a week, I decided to stay 3 weeks more, didn't really feel like visiting the nearby locations myself. But they are worth checking out. Here are some places you cou... read more

When I went to Albufeira, all I had heard from locals and also foreigners in there, is that you can find free wireless in the Library (close by to Albufeira Shopping Center) and MacDonalds. Well, that might be true, but the free wireless situation is actually a lot better than that. Note though that often you'll need to ask for the wireless password from the bartender. This of course, includes buying a beer or two as well (if you're a pussy, go with a coffee instead).
Usually it doesn't make... read more

Albufeira is full of bars. Most of them promote them, to my surprise, not via their prices, but via football games they show. For some reason they think everyone are interested in football. Well, maybe they are, considering they are getting a lot of English visitors. And as we know, most English guys are fans. Then again, I managed to meet quite a few who didn't like the fact hat wherever they went, even if the TV was not on, it was turned on to some football game. Bash. Bah. Duh.
Most bars ... read more

If you've ever been to Portugal, you know that the main local two beer brands in there are Sagres and Super Bock. You can find them in shops, in bars in everywhere in Portugal. In case of Albufeira they don't seem to be the post popular sold brands there. You can find a lot of places offering San Miguel from Spain or Magners for Holland. Plus other different types of foreign beers.
The prices? Well, that's a good question. As you can find beer for pretty much any price you want. Often the sa... read more

Whenever you're going traveling for something like a month or more, it makes sense to search for an apartment instead of booking a room in a hotel. Yes, it does make sense. However, in Albufeira and during off-season I wouldn't be so sure about it. I've looked all over internet for apartments and the best price I could find was 200 euros a month and that was an offer without a picture. Other offers I have seen have been from EUR 300. And when I was walking around in Albufeira, the best prices I ... read more

I love the Albufeira hotels mainly for one reason. While in very many other countries and even other towns and cities in Portugal, mostly what is being offered, are usual rooms or for lower prices, dorms. In Albufeira it seems to be an unwritten rule that most hotels offer self-catering rooms of which most also include a balcony.
The thing I've been repeating over and over again in my previous posts and what I will be repeating again, I was there during low season or actually not even low se... read more

One of the main reason I went to Albufeira for a month, was rather simple. I'm living in Estonia and at the time of my departure, the temperature in Estonia was -21 C. The reason why I chose to go to Portugal was simple as well. At that time, considering the temperatures, I had two choices to choose from if I wanted to go somewhere not very far - Malta or Portugal. And as I found cheaper plane tickets to Portugal (or actually to Spain, but who cares about the details), then Portugal it was. Anyh... read more

Welcome to MyAlbufeira.com. On this site you will find mainly information about my personal experiences when living in Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal for a month during off-season from February 23, 2011 to March 23, 2011. Because it was off-season, some things might be and definitely are different touring the high season.
My personal reason for going to Albufeira was rather simple - I wanted warmer weather. And during my stay there the temperatures were usually anywhere between 15 and 20 C. No... read more